Δευτέρα, 2 Ιουνίου 2014

The Rude Boy in Jamaican music

The rude-boy syndrome is nothing new to Jamaica. It has
been around for a long time. What is also not new is how many songs
there are that have been written and recorded since Jamaica's
independence on this topic, some glorify the rudies' behaviour, while
others condemn it.

As early as 1962, record producer Duke Reid, an
ex-policeman with credible claims to toughness himself, released
Stranger Cole's Ruff and Tough, a ska number that was one of the
first instances of a singer in popular music giving warning to the
unruly youths through the music.

"Don't bite the hand that feed you, cause the good you do lives after you - it will be rough and tough on your side," he warned in the recording.

The following year, record producers discovered that
there was a market for the converse message and sought to glamorise the
'rudies' with a number of recordings.

Foremost among these were three cuts by The Wailers - Let Him Go, Rudeboy and Jailhouse,
all recorded for producer Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd. Quite ironically,
however, The Wailers first recording for Dodd's Studio One record label
in early 1964 sent the opposite message in the nursery rhyme song Simmer Down. They warned "Chicken merry hawk de near and when him de near you must beware, so simmer down."

It was right on the heels of Jamaica's independence
in 1962 that the rude-boy syndrome and crime showed signs of escalating.
For one, a large number of young men migrated to the city in search of
jobs and other opportunities. When these were not forthcoming, it led to
discontent. This mounting discontentment and resentment found
expression in outbursts of violence, with the rude boy often employing
ratchet knives and guns.

Others found expression in music by getting themselves into recording studios. Simmer Down,
written by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, had the unique
Wailers touch and it sent a message to the dissatisfied and should have
helped to curb the upsurge.

Other factors such as the James Bond celluloid
adventure movies, which were popular at the time, also contributed to
the lawlessness and the rude-boy culture. Many of Kingston's young
criminals named themselves after the characters and actors in these
movies.

1965 saw the godfather of Jamaica reggae music,
Alton Ellis, joining the call for an end to rudeboyism. It had, by now
captured the nation's imagination and countless songs were written on
the topic.

The ratchet knife-wielding rudies were sometimes
sentimentalised as folk heroes like Robin Hood and were looked upon as
heroes by a few.

Ellis, however, had a different view and sought to dissuade them from their actions.

"Dance crashers, don't break it up, please don't make a fuss, don't use a knife to take somebody else life, you'll be sorry," Ellis would sing.

He, in fact, had a triplet of songs on the topic, the other two being The Blessing Of Love and Cry Tough
for producer Duke Reid, in the early 1960s. Sadly though, Ellis began
receiving threats from his competitors and peacefully reverted to
singing mainly love songs, focusing mainly on the love of his life,
Pearl.

In 1967, Tougher Than Tough, as the name suggests, was one of the toughest rude-boy songs ever made in Jamaica.

Employing the rocksteady beat, its chilling gun lyrics are uncompromising: In answer to the judge's question "What do you have to say for yourselves," The Heptones replied "Your Honour, rudies don't fear, tougher than tough, rougher than rough, strong like lion, we are iron." In the end, the rudies were freed.

One of the ironies of the song was its comparison
with the character of the singer Derrick Morgan, who was known for his
always unruffled manner.

Born with a sight defect, Morgan was seen as the
last person in reggae music to promote 'badmanism'. One view is that
songs like these only reveal the realities of society and do not
necessarily portray the character of the performer or promote violence.

The question remains, however, do these songs
glorifying lawbreakers, and which came to prominence in the rude boy era
of the 1960s, have anything to do with the murder rate?

From a musical standpoint, however, for sheer rocksteady artistry, Tougher than Tough remains in the highest echelons of Jamaican music.

The Silvertones, The Slickers, The Clarendonians,
Desmond Dekker and others, also had messages for the rude-boys, coming
from various points of view.

A man who could not possibly stand by and watch the
phenomenon of rude-boy songs, without adding his voice was Bob Andy,
songwriter extraordinaire.

His input, as has now become the norm, was a composition of extreme class.

It was persuasive and opened eyes, vividly showing rudies what could befall them if they did not stop.

He remarks in the song, "What about your home,
what about your food, what about your future too, you don't seem to care
about the coming year, you just live for today."

The recording titled Crime Don't Pay was taken from one of the best-selling albums out of Studio One.

The album, Songbook, incidentally, was a composition of 12 recordings, the only ones Andy ever did at Studio One.by jamaica gleaner